


This mortal road we stumble on

by drcalvin



Category: Szentivánéji álom | A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Szakcsi/Müller
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fairies, Gen, It ain't easy being human, Loyalty, Mortality, Not quite fixit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4744517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drcalvin/pseuds/drcalvin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five things about being human that Oberon and Titania attempted to understand; and that one thing they didn’t even try to figure out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This mortal road we stumble on

**Author's Note:**

> In the Budapesti Operettszínház version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the play ends with Oberon and Titania giving up their powers to become mortal together. I remain unconvinced that this is a well considered decision that won't come back and bite them.

**1) Food**

While Theseus had kindly hosted them for three days of celebrations, and his wife packed them a heavy hamper for the road, hunger gnawed at them long before they reached the city.

Oberon plucked apples, four of them, that had all looked red and sweet on the branch. The apples seemed smaller in his hand, and tasted dry and fainlty bitter – although Titania kissed him and finished both of hers.

Fairies eat moonlight and flower-dew, drinking fruit wine with honey only for pleasure. Apples from the side of the road are considerably less filling than either of these, at least to mortal bodies.

_[Puck had nothing to do with the state of the apples. Wild fruits rarely ripe to perfection, unless one happens to be the crowned ruler of the fair folk while plucking them.]_

**2) Mine and yours**

Milk was sweet and good, Titania recalled. It had been a long time since she had care of children young enough to need it in any greater quantities, but certain things one did not forget. Such as the knowledge that, while hare's milk had the roundest flavor, and the wild boar's quieted hungry babes like nothing else, cow's were the easiest to milk and gave the most plentiful yield.

Oberon gladly offered his apple to the spotted cow, and the animal stood docile beneath Titania's hands.

Less docile was the farmer. And his dog.

_[Puck had not meant to bring his exiled rulers to the farmer's attention, but dogs. Big, sleeping dogs just begging for an earwig to pinch them in their floppy ears… He, too, had to follow his nature]_

**3) Barter**

The road was long, and full of stones. Titania's shoes were made to dance on the meadow-mist and tiptoe over linden-tree flowers. They were the finest, most well-fitting shoes a foot could wear, but against gravel and jagged rocks, they offered scant protection.

Oberon's jacket was woven of spider silk and wolf's shadow; it was lighter than thought and the fabric would have brought tears to any draper's eye. But lying on dew-wet grass and hard roots, he wished he had borrowed the wolf's pelt instead.

There was no draper nor master tailor in the village they passed. But there was a peddler coming from the city, and in his cart lay thick wool coats and a pair of heavy clogs. He was a peddler with an eye for silver-threads and gold-gleaming earrings.

They were at least not cold, Titania said, although she found her new shoes too loud and clumsy.

_[Spider-silk, wolf's shadow, sunset stone… Puck hoarded it all, and did never bury tears in the fabric when he saw the wool-clad wanderers hobble along their road]_

**4) Walls**

"Papers?"

"Yes. Papers – Passports, trader's licenses? Anything?"

"Aha… You mean those papers. Dear, do you have our papers?"

"There was a storm."

"A very big storm, yes. I think… we lost our papers."

"In the storm."

"Then, we have a problem. Sarge!"

_[Puck never approved of cities. Too crowded, too human, and always so full of iron. But though he had drawn the road out to twice its length and laid it in loops and snags until a day's walk became a week, there was only so much he could do to roads before they ended up somewhere._

_He is beginning to suspect he should have made an effort to loop this one a little more.]_

**5) Bribes**

Oberon has not forgotten what it meant to be a king. While much of human life seems odd to him, he has learned already that the right gifts at the right time can be a balm on all forms of conflict. Much like the right gift, such as a stolen prince-child, can temper even the stormiest of royal marriages.

The gleaming star-stones in their hairpieces have drawn attention from the first day they arrived among the humans. And as soon as Oberon offers the gift of three such stones, the entire matter of passports vanish, as were they fairies seen from the corner of your eye – there and gone in a blink, to never having been there at all.

Titania loves her husband dearly. He was her a great comfort during their first harsh days as humans. But one habit that would never endear her Oberon, was his way of offering the most handsome gift with one hand, and then steal it back with the other, as soon as his fancy changed.

_[Puck doesn't know how many times he has assured Oberon that he is happy to procure him any treasure or trifle. It is not, he thinks sourly, as if he ever served from duty alone. He could have retaken the star-stones in an eyeblink, would have enjoyed it!_

_He does not enjoy the stench of iron bars, dirty humans and… their effluences. But Puck knows loyalty, even if his lord no longer expects it. The bench is free of splinters, the blanket home to no lice, and never did a prison cell smell so pleasantly of freshly cut grass before.]_

**+1 Laws**

"Puck! Attend me, spirit!"

"Your Majesty! Your glory shines undiminished and I hear and obey you gladly." Puck kneels and bends to kiss her feet; at the sight of her wooden clogs, he grabs the hem of her skirt instead, and kisses the fabric woven of shimmering unicorn hair.

"Oh, Puck… I don't even know if you are here," she says, Titania-no-longer-queen, not seeing his obeisance.

Yet she is the queen in his heart, if not of his forest, and her words sting worse than wasps.

"But if you are here, Puck, then I beg you. Intercede on your ersthwhile master's behalf. I have seen these stocks they spoke of and I do not believe they will fit my husband at all, much less for an entire Sunday."

She dabs her eyes, Titania-immortal-no-more. Spills tears that are neither laughter's pearls, nor pride frozen to ice; merely water and salt and worry for a foolish husband.

But though the world of the invisibles are hidden behind the veil of mortality, she remains Titania-not-of-woman-born. The weight of a spirit's kiss is lighter than the dragonfly wing, but she knows what it means when it drinks her tears and sorrows, leaving only giddy faith behind.

"I shall wait for him outside the city," she says. "And Puck? Thank you."

"My queen, my queen," replies Puck, before the burn of her mortal sorrow silences him; the taste of it worse than any adder bite, stinging deep inside his soul.

Puck does not like iron and locks. His pranks are best played in wood and vale, where the ground breathes free and a thousand creatures dance to his tune.

But there is neither wall nor lock nor iron bar that can keep Puck away from his masters, be they ever so mortal and frail; he gathers his wit and prepares to lead a prison on a merry chase.


End file.
